AZT is the first commercially available, known clinically active agent currently used widely in the therapy of AIDS. While extremely useful in antiviral therapy, AZT is limited in its use due to its toxicity and an insufficient therapeutic index to make it adequate for therapy. Thus, new classes of antiviral agents to be used alone or in combination with AZT and other agents are needed urgently for effective antiviral therapy against HIV. It is also especially important to have new agents which have antiviral activity against HIV-1 as well as HIV-2.
It is an object of the present invention to provide such new antiviral agents. It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods of obtaining such antiviral agents, pharmaceutical compositions containing such antiviral agents, and methods of using such antiviral agents.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.